Fabulous Classico. Oil from Umbria. Hand picked olives make this one of our all time favorites! If we had one oil that says it is Italian, this is the one!

About the Oil To talk to Giuseppe Cagnoni is to talk about olives, specifically Umbrian olives; in true Umbrian fashion he concedes nothing to the Tuscans. Located in central Italy, Umbria is a land of hills and mountains, more rugged than Tuscany, its neighbor to the northwest. Citadel towns are perched on high steep hills that rise to more than 600 meters above sea level. Giuseppe's family farm is in Trevi, located between Assisi and Spoleto. It is a small town perched on a pyramid of a hill surrounded by miles and miles of olive groves. This is where Giuseppe Cagnoni grows his olives and where five generations of his family have made exceptional oil.

The main olive variety planted on the Cagnoni property is Moraiolo, a specialty of Umbria. However, Moraiolo is not self-pollinating and so the property is also planted with small amounts of Frantoio and Leccino. Very little of the wonderful Moraiolo is grown. Their groves are planted on the rugged hillside in parcels that are from 380 meters to 600 meters above sea level. Everything is done organically by hand on the farm. Giuseppe's father Eugenio is considered a master pruner, and he prunes all the trees once a year, the old fashion way by climbing a ladder and working from the top down - his services are also in demand by other producers.

Only the first pressing of his finest olives go into Giuseppe's oils. He blends the Moraiolo, with small amounts of Leccino and Frantoio - the latter two varieties comprise as little as 10% to as much as 20% in a given year, and this technically qualifies Etruria as a monocultivar oil.